Remembering The Dead
by wolf in moonlight
Summary: Naruto is exhiled from Konoha after his battle with Pain. He now travels with Killerbee and Hinata, Sakura, Sai and Yamato have tagged along. Kakkashi is dead and Naruto reflects on all those he has lost and draws strength and inspiration from their memor


Naruto remembered nothing after seeing Hinata stabbed by Pein. He had some pieces filled in for him by Sakura but most of it was information he didn't want to know. It was to painful to hear.

Naruto had gone berserker after Hinata had apparently been killed by Pein. Naruto had taken on six tails of the Kyuubi's power and with it had gone on to devastate Pein and hunt him down relentlessly. Pein however would escape and a six tailed Naruto out of his mind with fury would return to the village. Unknown to many was that this beast on all fours approached the motionless form of a pale eyed Hyuga girl.

With a deep struggling voice that rumbled and scratched with strain, "Hi.....Hi........HI........NA.........TA"

This beast began to nudge the lifeless form before him with his face as if to rouse her from her slumber but such a thing could not be done. The six tailed Naruto curled up next to her and wrapped his tails around her and lay his head atop her chest, as if waiting for her to awake.

That was how Naruto was found. Laying next to Hinata with tears on his face and his skin horribly burned and damaged to an astounding degree. He should have been dead even the inside of his lungs matched his outside and any motion would cause his skin to flake and fall off in chunks. It was a horrifying sight to behold.

What was worse was the townsfolk who came out brandish anything that could be used as a weapon. Various objects from bar stools, bricks, bottles, hammers, and other miscellaneous objects. They gathered around Naruto who already had Medical Ninja trying to heal his wounds amoung them was Sakura.

The townsfolk wanted him dead or exhiled at this point and attempted to kill him. No mercy this time from anyone.

Sakura hadn't wanted to leave her side but Tsunade in her weakened state had insisted. Saying "Go on Sakura....I know....how bad you want to see him...it's okay. I know you'll deny wanting to see him....so just go...you don't have to say anything...." Sakura had hesitated but decided not to say anything else and left Tsunade in the medical corps care.

Sakura seemed to have been able to bring Naruto to consciousness although he was in a lot of pain he was awake. As Naruto tried to stand despite her protests a rock was thrown at him and stuck him in the back of the head.

"Ahh." Naruto fell to his knees and held the back of his head. It was bleeding. Both Sakura and Naruto turned to see who had thrown it and saw most of the townsfolk. No The entire town's people had gathered. More than just the rock was thrown at Naruto.

Bottles, cans, rocks, light bulbs. Any piece of rubbage you could imagine that could cause damage was hurled at Naruto and quite a few mangaed to hit him.

Sakura jumped in front of Naruto who was already bleeding profusely, "STOP!! STOP IT!!WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!?? Naruto saved the village"

The mob of people simply kept storming closer, they were out for blood. "What the hell are you talking about. It's all his damn fault that this happened in the first place."

"Yeah" another agreed. "If he wasn't here this never would have happened. They came here looking for the demon brat right? If he wasn't here they never would have bothered us."A crying mother holding her child was furious. "He didn't protect the town. LOOK AT IT!! Practically everything has been leveled! There's nothing but waste and debris! Many people are homeless now!"

A man with dark hair shouted his agreement, "That brats been nothing but trouble since the day he was born. Now because of him practically the entire village has been destroyed. Why didn't the other leaf nin just give them the brat like they wanted. They would have left us alone if you had!"

An angry villager with a scowl stepped forward. "The Demon can't stay here any longer. If he does more trouble like this will just find us because HE'S here! The DAMN monster's gotta leave NOW! We won't allow him to stay here any longer!"

The noise of agreement and hollers signaled they were all in support of this. "SEE!! NOW OUT OF THE WAY GIRL!!" With that he threw yet another bottle at Sakura who was protecting Naruto with her body.

Naruto's move was swift he jumped from his kneeling positon and took place in front of Sakura to take thrown bottle despite his chakra being exhausted from the battle with Pein. It struck him in the back of the head right were the rock from earlier had drawn blood. His head wound was worse then ever now and bleeding heavily. Naruto wouldn't let Sakura be hurt protecting him.

"Na..Naruto...why!!?" giving a forced smile that was anything but comforting. The blood from his head was down over his eyes and face somewhat. "Come on Sakura-chan. You know me better than that. I won't let you face what I've been dealing with my entire life. You shouldn't have to suffer like that. This is my burden and my burden alone."

A hammer was sent flying at the back of Naruto's head. Sakura couldn't bare to watch this. "Naruto...NO!!" The hammer was caught in mid-air, inches from the back of Naruto's skull. The man who held it had was dark skinned and older than them. Sakura estimate early to late 20's. He wore sunglasses and had a bandanna around his head that had the hitai-ite for the village hidden in the clouds

"Hammer time huh?" directing his eyes to the surrounding mob of townsfolk, their hatred palpable. "I see that konoha treats their jinchuriki just as bad as the others. But you'd think they would at least be grateful for him putting his life out on the line for them." The stranger then followed this by rasing the volume of his voice so all could hear him and began a terrible rhyme.

"That's a hell of a way to thank your hero. You best be gone by the time I hit zero!"

That didn't disuade the townsfolk they wanted him dead. What did was when practically the entire population of the ninja of Konoha surrounded Naruto trying to protect him from the crowd. Sai, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Shino, Kiba, Lee, Tenten, Neji, Guy, Anbu, and even Hiashi and Hyuga members stood defying the wishes of the crowd.

They claimed this boy was a hero and deserves the honor as such befitting a ninja who had defended his village in such a manner. Not the shame of being lynched by an angry mob. At least those were the exact words Hiashi had used. This stopped the mobs assault on Naruto and the calls for his blood.

When Tsunade was brought forth on a stretcher, her form withered, old, and weakened from her expenditure of chakra. To say she was furious at the townsfolk was an understatement. But despite the fury of Tsunade which could normally stop a volcano from erupting the townsfolk didn't get that message cause they only ceased their attack. They demanded Naruto be killed or exiled from the village forever.

Naruto, even in his weakened state, understood the situation. He couldn't fight the entire town. He might have the support of all the ninja in Konoha but if the townspeople wanted him gone then there was nothing he could do. He was tired...so tired of it. He put his hand on Tsunade, the two of them looked quite the horrific pair with their massive injuries weakened forms, and merely shook his head trying to have her cease her effort to defend him.

"It's okay." he had said. "They are right...I would only be putting them in danger with Akatsuki after me. If I'm going to be Hokage than it's my job to protect them and that's something I have to prove right now."

So Naruto agreed to leave the village still filled with sorrow over Hinata's death although it was right then that he was told she was in fact alive. She had been saved along with Naruto by the medic nins. Naruto liked to believe it was because Pain had intentionally tried to spare her at least he like to think so. He was overwhelmed with happiness and relief learning this but still with a heavy heart felt he needed to leave.

Killerbee offered Naruto the chance to tag along with him since he was 'taking a vacation' as he claimed. Tsunade agreed it would be a good idea but couldn't leave him alone with a forign ninja without backup against akatsuki. And despite the horrid situation the village was currently in she assigned Sakura, Sai, and Yamato (who had just returned) to accompany him.

Hinata demanded to be allowed to accompany them on the mission and Tsunade couldn't argue against it after Hinata told her straight then and there that she loved him in a very un-Hinata-ish manner. So Tsunade caved into her request remembering her own young love long ago with Dan.

Before Naruto left he had one request. He wanted to be able to see the burial of Kakashi-sensei and Shizunei. Naruto found that little orange book of Kakkashi's in his vest pocket. Naruto decided to keep it in order to remember his dead sensei. He held it close to him as he watched the forms of the two descend into the earth where they were covered and left as nothing more than a memory and a tombstone.

Which lead to the present. Now Naruto stood with Killerbee, Sakura, Sai, Yamato, and Hinata following him to god knows where. He himself wasn't sure. He just started walking thinking over the many people that had been lost that day. He would have to talk to Hinata tonight when everyone else was asleep. It was important but felt he couldn't talk about it with others there listening. He didn't realize how similar he was to Hinata at that moment feeling the way he did while holding the book that Kakkashi once owned, keeping it close to his heart.


End file.
